In order to keep up to date with this blog, I am of course rewatching many LVC films. Now I do already own pretty much all of them, but I do like to upgrade from time to time to make sure I am getting the best copy available.Today I recieved the Italian blu-ray for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly which is supposedly from a better print than the US version. We'll see how well it compares on the big screen in the home theater!
I also picked up Wild East's Death Rides a Horse and Take a Hard Ride on DVD. I already had these but wanted to check out the extras as well as evaluate the transfers.
To top it off I have the UK MGM widescreen print of God's Gun. The things I have to watch for LVC!
I'll report back what I find in a series of reviews!
Thanx, Aaron --- I admit I haven't kept up w. the recent DVD releases of LVC films (School's been eating all of my time), so a couple were new to me: the Italian Blu-Ray of GBU and the UK release of GOD'S GUN! While I find a certain child actor fairly annoying, unlike many LVC fans, I don't think GG stinks. Sure, it's no BIG GUNDOWN...and yes, the fact LVC et al didn't loop their own voices is unfortunate; but I've seen a LOT of Spaghetti Westerns that *truly* suck, making GG seem like CITIZEN KANE in comparison! ;) And, frankly, like most here, I find Van Cleef (even sans his Real Voice) usually *raises* the Quality of any film he's in...although, as noted elsewhere, I still haven't seen SPEED ZONE. So, maybe there's at least ONE exception to that rule, eh? ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm willing to give God's Gun another shot. Kid Vengeance would be hard for me to get through.
DeleteYou are lucky with Speed Zone. I remember many years ago I actually watched it all the way through, thinking LVC would show up again!
Does the Italian dollars film have an English soundtrack? They seldom do.
ReplyDeleteIt does not.
DeleteHey, we got some Fresh Blood, here? If so, "The Italian": Welcome! Come on outta Lurk mode, and post some on the Web Board, eh? Always glad to meet another LVC fan, amigo/a! ;)
ReplyDeleteI went to a multiplex to see Speed Zone also thinking Lee would show up again but he did not. The only other film I can think of with such short screen time for Lee is "Jack Slade" with "Naked Street" having Lee on screen just a bit more but not much. Speed Zone is a flop. It is too bad that several of Lee's films in the 1970's beginning with Captain Apache and in the 1980's other than Armed Response, Lee's films are not good.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw Kid Vengeance, which debuted in my area at a drive-inn theater, I couldn't believe the film was that bad. It had Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef and John Marley in it and Lee and Jim had worked together twice before with El Condor being a good film and Take A Hard Ride not as good but decent. But Kid Vengeance was as bad as Bad Man's River to me. The next year God's Gun played at the same drive-inn as a first run film and I had read about this film in Variety a couple of years before and was excited about it, thinking this could be Lee's best since Leone or Big Gundown and Death Rides A Horse as it had Jack Palance and Richard Boone in it too. But it was awful. Originally I figured someone had looped Lee's first character's voice and Lee would actually be doing his own voice when his second character hit the screen, but it was the same stand in guy. Several months before God's Gun debuted in my area, I caught an interview with Richard Boone who went nuts about the film. Said it was the worst piece of s*** he had ever got into, that he cussed out the director & told him he was a complete idiot and a fool, then walked off the set and quit then flew from Israel back to the states without finishing all his scenes. So when I arrived at the drive-inn, I was real worried this was not going to be a good film.
Somehow I think if one saw it in Italian or Spanish with Lee's usual looping guy for those languages & it was in English subtitles, it would play a bit better.
When Lee was on tour in 1970 for El Condor, he told a reporter, I think it was a Washington, D. C. newspaper, about how those Italian films he had been doing lately because he can be a leading man were made without sound and the voices for different languages including the native language Italian were all added in the studio later. Lee said for English versions, he always made himself available for the English version as he felt it was important for English speaking audiences, especially those who were use to hearing his voice, to actually hear his OWN voice doing the lines. For some reason, Lee Van Cleef did not do what he said he would always do with God's Gun.
I meant to say "in the 1980's AFTER Escape from New York; other than Armed Response Lee films are not that good"
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